One Short Day
by samlover14
Summary: Sequel to Dead on Arrival, Nick gets used to being alive again, and attempts to woo Jeff in the only way he knows how... which Jeff thinks is a bit antiquated. Fluff, Niff


**A/N: Due to popular demand, the sequel to Dead on Arrival, an soulmate AU where Nick had died in the revolutionary war, lived as a ghost, and was brought back to life by the pure power of soulmate love.**

* * *

_We pick up where we left off... Christmas morning.  
_

"Mom, he's not a stranger, he's my soul mate," Jeff whined.

"I don't care who he is, you have to ask before you invite your friends over," Jeff's mom replied.

"Mrs. Sterling, I can assure you, I had no intention of being here against your wishes, or of being in your son's bedroom after dark, and it will never happen again," Nick said.

"Are those my son's clothes?" Jeff's mom asked.

"You know what, Mom, why don't you pour yourself a nice big glass of holiday nog and I'll tell you the whole story," Jeff said brightly. Jeff's mom went to the kitchen to get some nog. "What is the whole story, exactly?"

"I don't know, this is my house," Nick said. "I've lived here longer than the two of you have been alive put together."

"Not helping the story, Nicholas," Jeff frowned.

"Let me do the talking," Nick suggested.

"You? The last time you had human interaction, the British Union Jack flew over Boston Harbor," Jeff exclaimed.

"Don't be so dramatic," Nick rolled his eyes. "We did _win_ the battle of Yorktown."

"Still."

"Chill out. Pet a dog. Stop being so dramatic, like me randomly showing up on Christmas is the least of your mom's worries, she should be making you _drink your juice_!" Nick said.

* * *

Mom issues aside (they eventually told her an abridged version of the truth, with a few lies, including that Nick's parents had died and would it maybe be okay since we're soulmates if he lived here for a while because he doesn't have anywhere else to go and he's been living on various people's couches for a few months), Nick was intent on wooing Jeff, though it was increasingly clear he did not need to be wooed.

"Are you sure you should be doing the wooing?" Jeff asked over his biology textbook one afternoon. "Cuz I'd let you bang me six ways to Sunday any time you like."

Nick was scandalized.

Nick's newest grand romantic gestures included a wide range of things such as somehow acquiring several bouquets of flowers for Jeff, serenading Jeff in the school cafeteria during lunch, and filling Jeff's room with helium balloons. They all seemed to get the same response from Jeff, and Nick was not satisfied with that.

It wasn't that the gestures weren't grand enough for Jeff, it's that Jeff didn't need to be wooed. Nick was insisting on wooing him, and Jeff was content to just jump Nick whenever. He knew Nick came from a different time, but he seemed okay with most pieces of modern life. Phones, the internet, he even knew how to fix many of your basic car problems.

"Nick," Jeff sighed, seeing Nick had once again brought him a present on his way home. "How are you paying for all this?"

"I have money," Nick said.

"You were dead until a month ago," Jeff pointed out.

"You're never gonna let that go, are you?" Nick asked. "I have investments."

"You do not!" Jeff exclaimed. "Just tell me you're not stealing it."

"I'm not stealing it," Nick said.

"Okay," Jeff said, accepting the gift.

"If you must know, I have a job," Nick said.

"You don't have a social security number," Jeff pointed out.

"I don't need one," Nick frowned. "Stop this."

"What kind of job do you have?" Jeff asked.

"Does it really matter that much to you?" Nick asked.

"Yes."

"I have been shoveling peoples walks and driveways for monetary compensation," Nick replied. "Basic home repairs, antique gun restoration, dog-walking, I have a website."

"Oh," Jeff said, impressed. "Wow, that's cool."

"I know, I'm a pretty happening person," Nick nodded. "Although, I'm not gonna lie to you, I walked into a few walls today."

"You walk into a few walls every day," Jeff replied.

"Rude," Nick reproved him. "I didn't walk into any yesterday."

"You walked into the glass door," Jeff reminded him.

"It's made of glass! Whose idea was that?" Nick exclaimed.

"I don't really know," Jeff admitted.

"Look it up!" Nick insisted, waving a finger at Jeff's computer.

"Nicky, I'm trying to do homework," Jeff said.

"I finished it already, copy mine," Nick shrugged.

"That is cheating," Jeff said.

"How is it any more or less cheating than when I was dead and used to help you with your homework?" Nick asked.

"How about we stop referring to it as 'when you were dead'," Jeff suggested. "There has to be a better way to word it."

"I dare you to come up with one," Nick said, turning around and tripping over Jeff's backpack.

"Sorry," Jeff said as Nick picked himself up from the floor.

"I'm starting to think you're doing it on purpose," Nick frowned.

"Okay, look," Jeff said, turning around in his desk chair. "You were dead for two hundred and…." Jeff did subtraction in the air in front of him with his finger. "… thirty four years. It's a big change for you, and I get it, so why don't you focus on getting used to not being dead, and I will focus on the wooing from now on, okay?"

"If you insist," Nick said.

* * *

Jeff had been doing some subtle research on how to woo Nick. Nick was worldly, much more so than Jeff, so Jeff thought sophisticated things would impress him.

"Where are we going?" Nick asked. He and Jeff were on a train, headed to New York.

"New York," Jeff said.

"But where in New York? Why?" Nick asked. "Last time I was in New York, I got shot."

"Well, we're going to focus on that not happening this time," Jeff replied. "We're not going to war, I think it's going to be fairly safe."

"Did you at least appreciate the fact that I tried to make breakfast?" Nick asked. He'd attempted to use the stove. Which was not a concept he was used to. And it hadn't turned out very good.

"I really did, honey, but my mother did not, so maybe next time, I'll help you," Jeff replied.

"How long is this train ride?" Nick asked.

"You waited 250 years for me to show up, and you're worried about a few hours on a train? Priorities, Nicky, priorities," Jeff said.

"Now I have you and I don't need to wait anymore," Nick said. Jeff laughed. Then he stood up, pulled his skirt down from where it had ridden up, straightened his sweater and offered a hand to Nick.

"Come on."

"What are you doing? You can't just get out of your seat while a vehicle is in motion!" Nick exclaimed.

"This is a train, it's different," Jeff sighed, wishing he hadn't told Nick about that rule, as it was beginning to cause more problems than it had solved.

"Oh, word," Nick said, getting up. "Why don't people ever ride horses anymore?"

"Because it's February, and everything is covered in four feet of snow," Jeff said.

Nick followed Jeff from their seats down the train to the car that had the tables, and there they sat down again.

"This isn't much of a change of scenery," Nick frowned around the car.

"Nick, trains are like the most antiquated form of travel that is still widely used."

"What about boats?" Nick asked.

"Respect the train."

"I'm not disrespecting the train, I'm just saying," Nick replied.

"Do you want to hear about what we're doing today or not?" Jeff asked.

"I do," Nick said, suddenly rapt with attention.

"We're going on a date," Jeff said.

"A date?"

"Yeah, it's a thing people do these days," Jeff began to explain.

"I know what a date is," Nick rolled his eyes. "Most of my friends were already married to their soulmates. The only reason I wasn't was…" He trailed off, looking at the black script on his wrist.

"Because I wasn't born yet," Jeff hummed happily.

"Sure."

"So we're going on a date, and it's going to be a mix of our interests, but I hope you'll like it all," Jeff said.

"Is that why you're dressed like that?" Nick asked.

"Like what?" Jeff asked, looking at his tight dress that wasn't exactly long enough to pass any school dress code and his sweater that wasn't exactly keeping him warm. "I told you I looked good in this dress."

"But you're going to be cold," Nick insisted.

"Oh, yeah, I'm not worried about that," Jeff shook his head. "Don't worry, though, because the date doesn't start when we get to New York. It starts now."

"Really?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Jeff said. "I wrote you a love note. I was going to mail it to you, but… just sit here and read it, and I'm going to be sitting over there." Jeff set the piece of folded up notebook paper on the table, then slid out of his seat and crossed the aisle, reseating himself and staring out the window of the train as if he was in a music video.

Confused, Nick opened the letter.

_My Dear Nicholas,_

_I just want you to know up front that I am writing you this letter because it was our class assignment. I'm in the third grade, and I just want you to know also, that this is the stupidest assignment ever, but someday maybe I'll be able to give you this letter and it won't seem so dumb anymore. What do I know? I'm 8._

_I guess the important thing for you to know is that I'm Jeff. Well, I'm usually Jeff. I have an alterego, too. Her name is Rosie, and she's fierce. But no one knows about her because they'll probably tease me to death. She would crush them, I know. I'm getting off track._

_I'm Jeff. I'm 8. I'm sitting in a classroom. It's boring. It's nondescript. We learned that word today. I know we haven't met yet, it's pretty easy to tell, I mean, I think I would remember meeting you if I had. Today's date is September 28, 2007. Hold on a second, I'm going to Google you._

There was a gap in the writing to indicate passage of time, and Nick looked over at Jeff, who was still intently staring out the window. So far, he was even more convinced that his soul mate was the cutest cutie that ever cuted.

_Alright, well, I'm not gonna lie to you, Nick. Did you know that there's someone with your exact name who died in the Revolutionary War? That's pretty cool, huh? I didn't expect to find anything. You're probably a totally different person, and I couldn't look too much into it, because I got yelled at for being on the computer when I'm supposed to be writing this letter._

_Alright, well, I don't have much to say about me. If I've given you this letter, we've probably met at this point, so… ask me anything you want to know, haha._

_Love, Jeff._

Nick looked over at Jeff again, a big dumb smile on his face, then turned the paper over, there was more.

_Okay, PS. It's later, I'm home from school and on Google again. Back to the Nick that died in the Revolutionary War. He lived here, in Rhode Island. Maybe you're related? Like, in this town. Like… okay. You know, I've heard of this happening before, hold on a second, I'm Googling it… _

Nick felt his heart break as he imagined an eight year old finding out their soulmate had died some 200 years before.

_It's really rare, but it happens that sometimes people get matched up with soulmates that have been dead for centuries. Are you dead? Are you Nicholas P. Duval III that died at Yorktown in 1781? There has to be another one… This isn't happening to me…_

_Maybe I'll meet you someday._

_Love, Rosie._

Nick folded the letter back up and put it in the pocket of his jacket. He quietly got up and crossed the aisle to sit across from Jeff again.

"Hello," Nick said. "Do you mind if I sit here? My name's Nick."

"Sure," Jeff smiled.

"You've known I was dead half of your life," Nick blurted out.

"Yeah," Jeff said quietly.

"That's heavy," Nick replied. "Did you tell your mom? Or your friends?"

"No, I never told anyone. I didn't want them to feel sorry for me," Jeff said. "And now they don't need to." He put his elbows on the table in front of him and Nick took his hand.

"Thank you for bringing me back," Nick smiled, kissing Jeff's hand.

"Thank you for wanting me, even though I'm not like you'd imagined," Jeff replied.

"You're exactly what I imagined," Nick said. He smiled, still too perfect to be from the pre-orthodontia era, and Jeff smiled back at him. "It was a very cute letter."

"Thanks, I got a B+ for effort," Jeff said. "I wrote the PS after it was graded. Probably would have raised my grade." Nick just laughed.

"I can't believe you knew it was me the whole time we were hanging out and you never told me or anything," Nick said.

"Honestly, I thought it was glitched, and what would we have done at that point?" Jeff asked.

"I don't know," Nick said. "I guess it's good it unraveled the way it did. Gave me a chance to fall in love with who you are, not someone I thought you should be. It had gotten to a point right before you told me about Rosie that I was wishing it said Jeff instead."

"Hey now, let's not diss Rosie, she knows what's up," Jeff said.

"Wait, aren't you Rosie now?" Nick asked.

"Doesn't matter," Jeff shrugged. "I can be fierce and wear a sexy dress as Jeff now. Gender roles are for losers."

"That's fair," Nick said.

"What would you have done if it had said Jeff?" Jeff asked. "Like when you were alive the first time."

"I don't know," Nick said. "I never really thought much about it. I was busy, I had a war to fight. I knew two boys who were a little older than me who'd been soulmates, and everyone just sort of accepted that they were soulmates and it was okay. It wasn't a huge deal, I guess. They really knew how to fight. Good with swords."

"Good with swords. Interesting," Jeff said. Nick didn't seem to understand the innuendo there, so Jeff let it go.

When the train finally stopped at Penn Station, Jeff held tightly to Nick's hand as they exited for several reasons. One, he didn't want to lose Nick, and two, they were trying to navigate from the train to the subway, and Jeff didn't want to lose Nick. Okay, so there was one reason.

"Where to now?" Nick asked when they finally got off the subway.

"You'll see, just be patient," Jeff insisted. "Goddamn, it's fucking cold, whose idea was this?"

"Yours," Nick reminded him. Jeff pulled his coat tighter around himself, but it did nothing for his legs.

"Come on, quick, it's cold!" Jeff exclaimed, running down the street to the huge building.

The American Museum of Natural History

"Where are we?" Nick asked as they entered the museum.

"Shh," Jeff said. "This is the Museum of Natural History, you know, the one from Night at the Museum. My parents took me when I was a kid, and you are going to love this."

Nick did. He truly loved it. They spent most of the day wandering around looking at everything. Nick had never had a history lesson, but absolutely loved learning, it was one of the best things about him. It was getting dark by the time they left the museum.

"This was the best date ever," Nick told Jeff. It was night time now, and even colder than it had been earlier, and Jeff was freezing his legs off. "You're freezing, babe, let's get off the street."

"Oh, hun, the date isn't even close to over," Jeff said. "Come on, it's not far." They walked as light snow fell around them and Jeff tried not to shiver, until they got to their next stop. There were two horses and a carriage.

"You're joking," Nick said.

"No, they really do this," Jeff said happily as he climbed into the carriage and covered himself with a blanket.

"This is amazing," Nick said. Their carriage moved slowly around the park and the snow fell lightly and it was so romantic.

"So happy Valentine's Day," Jeff smiled.

"The best one ever," Nick replied.

"I'm not going to lie to you I am so cold right now," Jeff whined. "Let's go to the hotel before we do anything else."

"I can't believe your mom let you take me to New York on an overnight trip," Nick said.

"Oh, it's going to get so much more wild, don't worry about that one," Jeff said.

The hailed the first cab Jeff could get and gave the cabbie the hotel name.

"I had so much fun today, you don't even know," Nick said. "I love history, I'm fascinated by it."

"I know," Jeff smiled.

"No, like, this is what history was like when I was a kid. 'So last Tuesday, we had the Boston Tea Party, and on Thursday, the English went looking for Sam Adams to arrest him, but he hid in a barn, and that's as far as we've gotten'," Nick joked. "There was no history. There was no scope on the universe. We didn't know anything about… anything. If your parents were Loyalists, you learned the kings and queens of England as far back as anyone could remember, but if they weren't…. History wasn't important. We were part of history. It was happening as we lived and breathed."

"That must have been so cool," Jeff said. "Besides the whole dying part."

"Yeah, besides the whole dying part," Nick agreed. They got out at the hotel and Jeff paid the cabbie.

* * *

"Hotels are surprisingly nice," Nick said, testing out the bed. "Better than your house."

"Usually the point of hotels, they want to make it worth paying money for," Jeff said. "I'm just gonna freshen up and then we can head out again, okay?"

"Where are we going?" Nick asked.

"Dinner," Jeff said as if it were obvious. "Where else?"

"How are you paying for this?" Nick asked.

"Oh, Nicky, you let me worry about that," Jeff smiled. "This is me wooing you."

"Oh," Nick said, very surprised.

"Are you enjoying it so far?" Jeff asked.

"Best date ever," Nick said happily.

"How many dates have you been on?" Jeff asked skeptically.

"Including this one?" Nick asked. Jeff nodded. "One."

"Alright."

Dinner wasn't anything special, Jeff took Nick out for pizza. Why? Because Nick genuinely loved pizza. Since the first time he'd tried it, he had loved it.

"Pizza is the food of the gods," Nick exclaimed after his second slice. "That is good stuff."

"I can't wait until you find out you can actually get it delivered to the house," Jeff shook his head laughing.

"Wait, what?" Nick asked seriously.

"Yeah, you can call the pizza place and tell them you want pizza and they bring it to you," Jeff said. Nick looked at Jeff like he'd never seen him before as the comprehension dawned on him. "It's sort of expensive, so maybe not ordering it every day would be a better idea…."

"I so love pizza," Nick exclaimed, picking up a third slice.

"Okay."

Jeff hadn't stopped smiling all day. He could barely remember the last time he'd stopped smiling, it felt like such a long time ago. He was happy all the time, every day now, and Nick was the reason.

After dinner, Jeff took Nick to a club that was having an under 21 night, and they danced into the night. Jeff loved dancing and Nick was so bad at it, but he liked it anyway because Jeff liked it, and when they finally made it back to their hotel, both of them were exhausted.

"This has been the best day of my life," Nick said. "My whole life."

"Really?" Jeff asked. Nick nodded earnestly. "I'm so glad you liked it."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Jeff said. He ducked into the bathroom to change into something more comfortable and conducive to sleeping. Nick changed in the room as Jeff was known to take much longer than he, and then began spreading a blanket on the couch for himself. "What are you doing?"

"Going to bed, I thought the date was over," Nick said.

"Yeah, it is, but you don't have to sleep on the couch," Jeff said. "You're such a gentleman sometimes, I don't know what to do with you."

"I… but… _oh_," Nick said, eyeing the one large bed warily. "Jeff…"

"I thought the only acceptable way to end the night would be to cuddle while we watched a movie," Jeff said, hopping onto the bed, completely ignoring whatever thought it was that Nick had sounded skeptical about.

"Oh," Nick said, brightening significantly. "That sounds wonderful."

Jeff was the little spoon as they watched the first movie they found on cable – ironically enough, Night at the Museum. Nick was happily reciting all the things they'd seen that day and Jeff drifted off to sleep with Nick's arms around him, just the way it should be.

* * *

**A/N: I don't know what happened here, but I thought it was 1, cute, and 2, funny, so there you have it. If you'd leave me a review, I'd love you forever.**


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